BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

Founding Fathers took godly principles and put them into our founding documents, choosing many of their ideas from Two Treatises of Civil Government by John Locke. It cites the Bible more than 1500 times to show the proper operation of civil government. America's first civil government was based on a covenant with God. Those who came over on the Mayflower wrote the Mayflower Compact before they stepped onto American soil. Paraphrased, they basically said, "We have come to this nation to propagate the gospel of Jesus Christ and to establish good government, based on His principles, and we covenant with God to do that." Twenty-three years later, the colonies made a joint covenant saying basically the same thing. It was the first time in history for there to be anything like a United States where the various colonies cooperated together. Our government was set up on biblical principles such as that in Exodus 18:21, which said to choose rulers of tens, fifties, hundreds and thousands (in other words, local, county, state and federal). These were to be "able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness." Our elections are based on this principle and these qualities are what we should be looking for in candidates. It's not important whether they are Republican, Democratic or any other party. We should seek to elect God-fearing people who will honor God and advance His principles. Ezra 7:25 says to appoint judges who know the laws of God. A judge who knows the laws of God will be a God-fearing judge. When judges who don't fear God are appointed, believers may say, "We didn't appoint them." But the truth is, we allowed the people who appointed them to get elected. So we are ultimately responsible—often because of our lack of involvement and sometimes because we voted for issues other than those spelled out in the Bible. Romans 12:2 in the J.B. Phillips New Testament translation says, "Don't let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould…." We have to be mindful not to let our friends, our families, our backgrounds, our co-workers or public opinion determine our choices for political candidates. We must vote on the basis of what matters biblically, not the popular issues of the day. The Godly In Government As Christians we don't usually think of politicians as ministers, but the Bible indicates otherwise. Romans 13:1 says, "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God." That means civil authority is ordained of God. Verses 4 and 6 say that those in civil government are God's ministers. The Scripture clearly reveals the importance of government to God. First Timothy 2:1-2 says we are to pray for those in authority—first of all. Since He mentions this first, it must be very important to God. And apparently Jesus considered service in civil government as a means of reward, for in the parable of the talents the faithful servants were rewarded by being made rulers over cities (Luke 19). It's also interesting to note that in Hebrews 11, the faith "hall of fame," the great heroes mentioned from verses 22-34 were involved in civil government. As Christians we need to reevaluate our involvement in civil government. God desires for His people to be influential in all arenas, especially government. We are to be the salt and light of the earth. And when we don't get involved and we don't vote for godly candidates, we're making it easy for sin to run rampant in our nation. When the godly depart from any arena, their godly values depart with them. It's only when the righteous rule that the people rejoice. It's our responsibility to get involved, to preserve and restore our heritage. So let's pray for our leaders, see what the Lord would have each of us do, and vote for godly candidates. The government God has blessed us with is a great gift. When we stand before Him one day and He asks what we did with it, what will be our answer? 2 4 : B V O V i David Barton is founder and president of WallBuilders, a pro-family organization which seeks to educate grassroots society to rebuild America's constitutional, moral and religious foundations. For more information go to wallbuilders.com WHEN THE GODLY DEPART FROM ANY ARENA, THEIR GODLY VALUES DEPART WITH THEM.

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